I don’t normally do this but…
Smithy on Wee Trees Bonsai Forum has a mate in Japan who is directly helping those hit worst by the Tsunami in Japan. Dru Taylor is a Brit living in Japan who was so shocked by what happened he has been scrapping together money from anywhere he can and using it to fill trunks with food. He then drives it to the worst places to make sure the right people get it.
This is Dru.
This is what Dru had to say on his last email to Smithy.
Last Weeks Truck We had a big donation from another stranger who has now become a friend (thank you Jade) . I tried to get the normal 2 ton truck as I had enough money to fill it with vegetables but Toyota only had a 2 ton long so suddenly I had a truck with an extra 4 sq/mtrs to fill which believe me is a lot of extra vegetables. I decided I wanted to fill it rather than take it up a bit empty so also used some money from funds donated by lots of friends and friends of friends , thank you all again and again and again .I Went to our local fruit and vegetable market early Saturday morning, they give us cost price for everything and bought :
250 daikons
450 onions
360 Haksi ( chinese cabbages )
1000 bananas
200 gobo ( burdock )
450 leeks
180 pumpkins
750 aubergines
300 packets of enoki mushrooms
1330 packets of eringi mushrooms
546 cabbages
We then drove miles to a little fishing village on the Ogatsu peninsula called Funakoshi to see Mr Nakasato ( Koichi )and his family, Kyoko had spoken to him a few days earlier and cried after speaking to him so I knew we were going to make a drop there. The town before the Earthquake/Tsunami had a population of 350 with 130 fishing boats, now it has a population of 16 and 3 fishing boats , most people survived but have been spread around shelters across Japan , the 16 people that are left are determined to rebuild their community , this place has not been cleaned at all so still had houses upside down in the sea, cars on buildings , peoples possessions everywhere, which brought back memories of how bad many places we`ve seen were. We sat and drank tea and spoke for about an hour with Koichi and his friends and they took vegetables for themselves , no greed at all. It was already getting dark and we had another drop to do in Osu Shogakko ( primary school )a shelter for 90 people but they also distribute to another 360 people living in their houses in the area. Then we drove to Okumatsushima ( shima means island ) which it is said have one of the 5 most beautiful views in Japan ( ironically we actually camped in the car park of the now shelter 2 years ago with the kids when we travelled this coast line ) The roads have been washed away so it wasn’t possible to drive onto the island until the morning when the tide goes out , so we parked up in a convenience store car park, had a couple of beers and slept in the truck .(did I mention this was all in the middle of a typhoon LOL). In the morning with typhoon still in full swing we drove along temporary roads onto the island and saw everyone from the shelter waking up and washing , brushing teeth outside , going to toilet in the portable toilets , already they’ve been in this situation for 3 months now . We went for a walk in the rain and when we came back asked them what vegetables they would like , such lovely happiness and smiles from so many lovely people ( this is the best part of what we are doing , to put smiles on the faces of mums, dads ,kids, grannies grandads ) again such diplomacy from the people , no greed at all they took what they needed and then said,” please take to somewhere else” .Next we delivered to the Honbu ( distribution centre ) for the people living in the surrounding houses on Okumatsushima. We met a 55 year old man who has lost everything, he cried as he told us he didn’t eat for the first 3 days and slept in his car for 2 weeks , now he’s in a shelter but said only 2 times since March 11th they’ve had vegetables delivered and both times they were old. You should’ve seen his smile when he tasted our fresh crispy cabbages, priceless .When he saw the bananas he just wispered , i love bananas. We then delivered the last drop to Iwanuma volunteer centre to be distributed to 3 places in the local area
Were took another truck up there this Saturday ( i will mail soon with that story ) again because some fantastic people donated to what we are doing THANKYOU. . The main reason we do what we do is the thought of our kids going without food specially fruit and vegetables after going through what the people in the north have been through, such devestation.
We will keep doing what we are doing as long as we can with donations from anyone that also feels the need to feed and keep healthy so many beatiuful people with what we all take for granted , the government are just NOT giving fruit and veg so it is our job . If anyone can help please please contact me dru , we take NO money at all for ourselves ALL the money goes to where it should , Big thankyou.
Taylors of the rising sun
It’s totally up to you if you want to help Dru out. He’s not a registered charity, just a guy doing his absolute best to help these people out. My first worry was, is this legit??!! Smaithy has known him since childhood. By reading the email above and looking at Dru’s FlickR account I’m personally happy that it is and will be sending a tenner once I get my Paypal account sorted.
Others in the Bonsai Community have raised money for Japan, I preferred to give to the Japanese Red Cross. This however hits home to just how bad it still is out there and is a nice way to see ALL your money going directly to those who need it. What’s a tenner after all…
If you want to give here is the Paypal account to use.
Here’s a few photos from Dru’s FlickR account to look at while you think it over.
Simple things like bicycles to get about on
High School mentioned in email
Worth risking a tenner on, don’t you think?
and this was it today, oops, it’s 00.25, make that yesterday 🙂
Loads of new growth and no die back from wiring at all. Stephen needs to pinch, especially at the apex, to balance out the growth and vigour within the tree.
and I spotted this clump of baby spiders on a Pine just waiting for a breeze to drift off on.
This was it last year. When I acquired it, it had some major wire damage at the apex and some poor branches in the wrong places. My treatment was drastic but I’m happy with the result.
After being tied up with bonsai for the last two Sundays it was a relief to get out with the dogs this morning. We added a bit on to the walk to make it around the 11 mile mark. We started off at the Lead Mines in Ards and walked the Clandeboye Way to Bangor Marina. Some nice trees and flowers along the way for inspiration.
Some native Orchids I spotted on the way. Amazing that they have survived the dirt Bikes that tear the area to bits!
At the top of the first hill is Helens Tower. You can read about it for yourselves. It was nice to see and reminded me of the Ulster Tower during my trip to the Somme Battlefield last September.
Some nice Beech and Pine around the Tower dating to the original planting in 1848.
What are you looking at?
Where did the path go??
Pink Valerian
Eleven miles later, the finish line at Bangor Marina.
You can see how to remove flower heads 
I got this tree last year on the cheap as it was nearly without branches and very pot bound. It was repotted this Spring and today I shortens some of the extension growth produced at the end of last year. All I’m after is large platforms to display flowers, typical of satsuki everywhere. However, I do want to build up the ramification in the proper manner, not just fill it out with leggy growth. Here is a photo of it after some shortening of the shoots. I even managed to get a few cuttings 🙂
I am now expecting some serious growth.
Weak buds.
A few branches looked dead and after a quick scrape, this was confirmed and I removed them.
This branch is actually a bud that has opened year on year but never extended. You can actually see the the tiny rings from each year. I have seen this on yamadori Hawthorn, but never a field maple.
Bonsai Eejit 